CASE STUDY

Context: Nowadays, fast response time is essential. Customers expect news and for products, including clothing, to arrive as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it’s usually just not feasible for most brands to anticipate trends and adjust the production of collections at such a fast pace. Taking advantage of this issue, more and more fast fashion brands began to appear on the market. “Fast fashion” brought a new way of thinking. The philosophy is that clothes must be produced quickly (and often cheaply), and consumers should move quickly to the next thing. Clothes are not meant to last for seasons.

Description: The best example of this is Zara.  The brand has been hugely successful due to three crucial aspects of its operation. These include:

• Limited supply. Zara sells fewer pieces of each item or garment, but there are always new clothes or entire collections waiting for its customers.
• Short order processing time. This keeps its assortment up to date with current trends.
• More styles available. Instead of selling more clothes of particular styles, Zara is constantly introducing new collections, sometimes with quite different styles. For example, more than twice a week.

As a result of these steps taken, customers are offered an assortment of clothing that is always “fresh,” on trend that can be customized at will, which allows shoppers to have a “unique” look, despite being a mass-market retailer. In particular, the Zara chain relies on feedback from all stores: “Store managers provide customer feedback on what shoppers like, dislike and are looking for. This demand forecasting data is immediately forwarded to Zara’s designers, who start sketching on the spot.” The company combines these in-store insights with a very active social media presence. Consumers are quick to comment and share their favourite new styles, and Zara can use these reactions to continue to deliver successful products. As a result, Zara’s sales have grown 12% a year for the past 15 years and continue to grow. In an industry where apparel companies are struggling, this is even more impressive. And this situation is not unique to Zara, most apparel brands understand the need to improve efficiency in terms of speed to market and the importance of incorporating consumer insights into the decision-making process. Companies are simply trying to adapt.

Lesson learnt: But this and other examples are at odds with the idea of sustainable fashion, because brands like Zara are representatives of the fast fashion movement. And although their actions attract customers and meet their expectations in the aspects cited above, the increasing popularity of these brands is not at all good for the fashion market[1].

[1] Linkfluence “Consumer Insights for Fashion: How Top Brands Keep up With Consumer Trends” https://www.linkfluence.com/blog/consumer-insights-for-fashion-industry